Backlinks Discovery Race. Semrush vs Ahrefs vs Moz vs Majestic speed test.
We recently tried manipulating the domain authority scores from leading SEO software vendors.
After reaching partial success, we investigated the backlinks discovery performance more deeply.
We took a recently registered domain, purchased 1500 backlinks, and scanned them with Screaming Frog to ensure they were all valid and active. Then, we started to test daily (!) the ability of SEO tools to discover them.
Read it as a speed test for Ahrefs, Semrush, Moz, and Majestic.
Based on prior experience, my bet was that:
The first days of the experiment supported our expectations:
Ahrefs was the first to find new backlinks. On day 2, it discovered 48 new domains:
The next day, Semrush joined the race with 27 domains found:
Interestingly – Ahrefs hasn’t found new links.
Anyway, the race started as expected. In previous experiments, the discovery speed of backlinks for both tools was approximately equal.
On day 4, Semrush took the leadership, discovering 126 domains. Ahrefs was still at 48.
Then things went wild. As you can see on the graph above, Semrush (red line) will be discovering new domains daily for the next few days, while Ahrefs (blue line) will add only a few.
It wasn’t typical. As mentioned, Ahrefs usually shines in discovering backlinks and competes head-to-head with Semrush.
The real thing happened on day 9. Moz woke up and discovered 331 referring domains. This is how it looked:
Moz, with 331, is ahead of Ahrefs with 88 and closing the gap with Semrush with 459.
I’m watching soccer with less excitement!
Alex in Ukraine updates data in the morning when it’s night here in the US.
Now you know the answer if you ask what wakes me up in the morning—watching this geeky Christmas race.
Interestingly, Moz updated the tool interface backdate.
Yesterday, the graph was empty. Today, it looks this way:
So, I assume they discover links daily but update their tool data once a few days – weekly.
January update: The experiment is over. Semrush discovered 517 referring domains, Ahrefs 383, Moz 345, and Majestic only 9—their bar hasn’t appeared on a graph illustrating this experiment.
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